The Crossroads

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Layla's Humiliation Route.

The moment I saw those words, memories from when I had played the game came flooding back.

Layla and Hex, who had bickered at every possible opportunity, had at some point started moving as a pair. Whether they were setting up camp or carrying out a request in town, the two of them would vanish together and return together.

And that was not all.

"…"

Layla's speech had dwindled to almost nothing. Affinity events never triggered, so her Affinity Level barely rose at all, and her name stopped appearing among the companion choices during party events. The woman who had always teamed up with Mela unless you specifically selected otherwise had begun operating on the same team as Hex — the person she got along with worst of all.

Uneasy, I had even carved time out of my action slots with Emily just to spend it with her, but it yielded nothing. And then, at last, that moment arrived.

It happened after I selected the choice Search for Layla.

"Hah…! Aahng!"

A woman's cries were leaking out from inside Hex's room. Looks like he had called another village girl up to his lodgings again today. The moans and the wet, squelching sounds seeping through the door forced me to lower the hand I had raised to knock.

I'll skip this one.

I had been wandering around asking after Layla, but there was no way I could ask Hex anything in his current state. I was just about to turn back when—

"P-please… be a little gentler…!"

That voice stopped me cold. It was nothing like the one I knew — and yet I knew it beyond any doubt. I turned my head and stared at Hex's door.

The bed creaked, and Hex's voice came through with it.

"Hahaha! So the pride of the Mage Tower is a pervert like this? Those old geezers must be so damn proud. What, you try it with them too?"

"Nngh! You…!"

Smack.

The crack of flesh being struck cut Layla's words short. Another sharp slap rang out, and a moan burst free.

"Ahk!"

"A bitch who gets off on having her ass spanked still trying to act proud?!"

"N-no, I'm not!"

Layla protested pitifully, but Hex answered only by striking her backside again. After several more blows, she had no choice but to surrender her defiance.

"I do! I get off on being spanked! So please, just stop…!"

"When you make a request, you do it politely!"

"Hah…!"

For the Layla I knew, this would have been an unthinkable humiliation — something she would never have bent to. And yet, in a voice thick with tears, she gasped out the words.

"I… I'm a pervert who cums just from getting her ass spanked! So please stop hitting me!"

The last shred of pride Layla had clung to crumbled. With it, the pleasure she had been holding back seemed to surge free, and she let out a raw, animal cry.

"…"

I had no choice but to leave them and walk away.

Ah, damn it. Not again.

Remembering Layla being humiliated like that had given me a full erection. …Alright, fine — it was kind of hot. Any healthy guy would react the same way. Obviously.

Meanwhile, the man across from me kept babbling on about things I hadn't even asked.

"There's a highly skilled mage who got driven out of the Mage Tower because of that bitch. He says he'll cooperate with anything — anything at all — if we just cut him in when we take her."

I knew the guy. He had tried something shady at the Mage Tower, gotten caught by Layla, and been expelled. Later he conducted inhuman experiments in some village, got wrecked by the hero party, and eventually threw himself in with the Demon King's army, becoming a demon and remaining a thorn in the hero party's side until the very end. A genuine villain.

So that's how he could have been connected.

Not that I had particularly wanted to know. My mind made up, I spoke without hesitation.

"No."

"Excuse me?"

He stared at me with a blank look. I snapped at him, irritated.

"No. You bastard. No!"

There was nothing to deliberate over. As a devotee of pure love, how could I possibly accept a proposal like this?

"I don't do blackmail!"

Fortunately, the penalty wasn't anything serious. Having ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the understanding progress reset was a little wasteful, but it hadn't been much to begin with — I could just build it back up.

"…"

The real problem was this guy. A muscle-bound, humiliation-route specialist who called Hex "Boss." He looked like a thug at a glance, and if he started suspecting my identity and decided to throw hands… honestly, he looked scarier than Hex himself.

His expression went cold and hard.

"I heard you rescued a village girl who was kidnapped by goblins."

"Yeah, I did."

"I also heard you gave the reward money to the other adventurers."

Both were thoroughly un-Hex-like actions — the kind of thing anyone who knew him would find suspicious. A heavy silence settled between us. I was bracing for him to lunge at me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in suspicion when—

"As expected of you, Boss!"

"…What?"

"Rather than just screwing some country girls, you're using them to build trust, aren't you?"

"Uh, no?"

"You'll cultivate the relationship, then shatter it! That's the plan!"

"I said no."

"Even when you could develop a normal romance, you deliberately destroy it and take them by force — you always said forcing a woman who trusts you completely is so much more thrilling!"

Hex, you absolute freak. You were a genuine degenerate bastard, weren't you?

And this guy, recounting all of that with a rapturous look on his face, was just as dangerous.

I'll kill him later if I get the chance.

Anyway, I had been a little worried — but him jumping to his own wild conclusions like this was actually a huge help.

On top of that, just listening to Hex's deviant sexual preferences was sending the progress bar skyrocketing. Separately from that, though, I was starting to feel a little dizzy — a sensation like conflicting emotions colliding, something close to vertigo.

He looked at me and asked,

"…Are you sure you're alright?"

Despite the concern in his words, his hand was slowly drifting toward his waist. I could read him perfectly. He was playing at familiarity, but he had vaguely sensed that I was different from usual.

The moment he's sure something's wrong with me, he'll go for the stab.

I knew this not because I had figured out this man's character, but because my understanding of Hex — a man with the exact same nature — had risen. A villain who would plant a knife in your back without a second thought, no matter how close you were. That was the kind of person Hex was. Of course he was — that was how he ended up violating other men's women even during Affinity Level events.

I smiled. Not the cheap, villainous grin I had been faking until now — a real Hex smile.

After checking the system windows, I casually shifted my gaze.

"Hey. You."

"It's Grok, Boss."

Grok snapped to attention, suddenly tense.

"Right, you. Until I contact you again, keep ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a close watch on that guy."

"The mage? Yes, Boss! I'll keep him ready to use whenever you need."

With that, Grok fled down the alley like a man escaping, and I decided to head back, satisfied that I had accomplished what I came for.

"…"

But the more I thought about it, the more it stung. That had been a chance to do whatever I wanted with Layla. Recalling the humiliation scene I had watched during my playthrough made desire boil up inside me.

…Should I?

The message when I rejected the branch only said I couldn't receive blackmail proposals from that person for thirty days. It never said I couldn't select the branch again. In other words, the opportunity would come back eventually, no matter when. Thinking of it that way, there was no reason not to.

I mean, "rape pure love" is practically a trending genre these days, right? Even if it starts with force, if you take decent care of her afterward, doesn't that still count as pure love?

"BULLSHIT!!!"

My shout boomed through the street, and the underworld types nearby stared at me in shock. I didn't have the bandwidth to care. Cold sweat was running down my back.

What the hell was that just now?

It had started as the tiniest flicker of feeling. Then, in an instant, it had flared up like a wildfire and tried to devour my entire mind — an impulse so fierce that if it hadn't been a wicked thought distorting the meaning of pure love, it would have swallowed me whole.

As I stood there reeling, a system window appeared before me.

"…I see."

The higher the Synchronization Rate climbed, the more I became like Hex. The more I acted like Hex, the faster the rate would rise — and the more of Hex's power I would be able to use. Conversely, the more I rejected Hex's behavior, the more the Synchronization Rate would fall.

Which means I can't get stronger.

In that moment, I understood that I was standing at a critical crossroads.

Either plunge the world into danger to preserve my values — or abandon my ideals, become garbage, and save the world.

I had to choose.